Team USA coach Steve Kerr said Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum will be in the lineup for Wednesday’s game against South Sudan at the Paris Olympics.
. “Jayson will play [Wednesday],” Kerr told reporters, via Brian Windhorst of ESPN. “I’m not going to answer your next question, which is if he plays, who doesn’t. But we’re going to need him, and part of this job for me is to keep everybody engaged and ready, because my experience with this is crazy stuff happens.”
Tatum, fresh off a championship with the Celtics, did not get in the Team USA opening victory over Serbia on Sunday. His Boston backcourt teammates, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, did play.
“The hardest part of this job is you’re sitting at least a couple of guys who are world-class, some of the very best players on Earth,” Kerr said. “On one hand, it makes no sense at all. On the other, I’m asking these guys to just commit to winning one game and then move on to the next one. I have to do the same thing. And so I felt like last night those were the combinations that made the most sense.”
Tatum averaged 6.7 points in Team USA’s five exhibition games. Team USA barely beat South Sudan, 101-100, on a driving layup by LeBron James in an exhibition game last week. This despite the fact Team USA was a 43-point favorite.
Meanwhile, South Sudan is coming off a 90-79 win over Puerto Rico in its first-ever Olympic game.
“With South Sudan, it’s more about the speed, and speed is a killer,” Kerr said. “You have to be prepared for everything, and that means we need everybody.”
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